Chapter 185: The Li Family Moves to Town

"Change the packaging?"

When Li Xian called and proposed this new idea, both Old Zhu and Zhu Feng, who had come to the residence, were a bit puzzled.

Currently, Bangye White's packaging was produced by the county glass mold factory. At present, the distillery's bottles were the only production task for this glass factory, with orders arranged by the county, resulting in very low supply prices.

"Yes."

Li Xian nodded and explained the issues, such as the uniformity of the glass bottles, the large number of recycled bottles on the market that made counterfeiting much easier, and the lack of distinguishing features in the product's appearance.

He planned to switch to ceramic packaging.

High-end liquors on the market had already started using different packaging. For instance, Moutai, known for its ceramic bottles, and Kongfu Family, a popular low-alcohol liquor, now used 350ml small jars.

However, this was mainly for high-end liquors. Bottled liquor under ten yuan still predominantly used glass bottles.

Li Xian's idea to switch to ceramic bottles wasn't a sudden impulse to imitate high-end liquors but was based on the conditions in the Bangye region.

Bangye is a poor and remote place, but as the saying goes, "there are poor families, but no poor mountains." Bangye also had its unique attributes.

Twenty years later, even after being extremely impoverished, Bangye had two notable things: the residence where Li Xian lived, which was renovated and classified as a provincial-level cultural relic, and its only local specialty industry — Bangye ceramics.

Ceramics have existed since the Neolithic Age, with discoveries in the Da Xi, Qu Jia Ling, and Long Shan cultural sites. The Qu Jia Ling culture is the earliest, with over 6,000 years of history.

In Shandong, ceramic culture has been passed down through generations, and Bangye ceramics were brought over during the "Going to the East" migration.

Interestingly, Li Xian's grandmother, Yang Shuzhen, was from Shandong and continued the family's ceramic-making tradition into her old age. After Zhu Dashan suffered a stroke and was bedridden, Yang Shuzhen still took on some side work at the ceramic factory to earn extra money.

However, these folk crafts were not well-regarded. Although Bangye ceramics initially followed the ancient method of producing carbon-black ceramics from Qu Jia Ling culture, after the founding of the People's Republic, production shifted to practical items like large jars and urns.

The improvement in Bangye's ceramic industry was not related to heritage but relied on the local abundance of resources like cloud water mother, kaolin, montmorillonite, and quartz feldspar clay, which were used to make flower pots for export.

Later, the Bangye government attempted to develop Bangye ancient ceramics and venture into high-end crafts. However, many skilled artisans had passed away, and the non-lucrative ceramic-making skills had not been passed down, resulting in little success.

Digressing.

Currently, ceramic bottles for liquor packaging were feasible.

However, Old Zhu and his son felt that using such packaging would inevitably increase the cost of the liquor. Besides cost, ceramic bottles also had disadvantages in terms of packing and transportation.

Ceramics, in terms of strength, could not compare to glass bottles.

In response to their concerns, Li Xian could only smile and say nothing — without investigation, there could be no comments. He immediately sent Zhu Feng to contact the county ceramic factory.

Unexpectedly, Zhu Feng soon returned with the factory manager, who was quite excited about the business opportunity.

The factory manager, Gui Changfa, who happened to be Gui Hu's cousin, was very polite and seemed quite invested in the business.

"Boss Li, don't worry. If you entrust this packaging business to our ceramic factory, feel free to make any demands. We will meet them, even if it means creating difficulties if necessary! We will definitely make you satisfied!"

Seeing Gui Changfa's enthusiastic attitude, Li Xian quickly waved his hand and said with a smile, "It's not that serious. I just need a liquor bottle, around 200 milliliters. The simpler and cheaper it is to produce, the better. But there's one condition."

He held up a finger. "This bottle must be disposable. It cannot be recycled or reused. Can you do that?"

Ceramic bottles were indeed manageable. In ancient times, many liquors were packaged in ceramic jars. It was a matter of pressing the clay and adding a glaze on the inside. Technically, it was not difficult.

But disposable…

Gui Changfa scratched his head. "We haven't made disposable ones before! If it can't be recycled, we'd have to make a whole unit. It's doable, but the key issue is, Boss Li, how will you fill them?"

Li Xian shrugged. "That's your expertise. It's up to you."

Gui Changfa looked distressed.

"What should we do?"

…

While Gui Changfa returned to the ceramic factory to mobilize all the technicians and old artisans to research disposable ceramic bottles,

Three people, two men and one woman, arrived at the residence along the county town avenue.

One of them, upon seeing the plaque with "Li Residence" in gold letters on a black background, nearly had a fit, stabilizing himself for quite a while before recovering.

It was Li You.

After calming down, Li You looked at the residence's gate, feeling somewhat guilty. "Did we come to the right place?"

Li Daoyun took out a small piece of paper from his pocket, checked the address Li Xian had left during the phone call, and carefully compared it with the house number at the gate before nodding.

"No mistake, it's this one."

Li You jumped up. "Dad! Dad, Old Er bought such a big residence! This… this… this is too… too ostentatious!"

Looking at the grand archway, even though he had seen many ups and downs in his life, Li Daoyun hesitated to step forward.

Heaven help us, even when the Li family was still well-off when he was young, they lived in a big earthen fort, with a cannon mounted on top to guard against bandits.

That was impressive enough, considered a prominent family around Keshan.

Hearing his son's exclamation, he also smiled and said, "This plaque shouldn't be hung like this… It's too much. We have no title or rank, how can we call it a residence?"

"Dad, should we go in?" Li You asked, taking a deep breath.

Li Daoyun thought for a moment, adjusted his tobacco pouch, stiffened his neck, and said, "Huh? Now it's New China! The residence was bought by my grandson, why shouldn't we go in?"

At that moment, the large red gate with big copper nails opened. A small leg in floral cloth shoes stepped out. Seeing the three people standing at the gate, the owner of the small leg blinked.

"This girl is really pretty,"

As Zou Ni was admiring Su Ya, a voice with surprise called out from behind, "Uncle! Old Li! Sister-in-law! Why did you all just arrive?"

Old Wu, carrying a basket of vegetables, came running up with the wind.

He had been waiting eagerly for several days, ever since hearing that Li Xian's family was coming.

As Old Wu helped Li Daoyun and welcomed Li You into the residence, Su Ya glanced at the people helping her mother with the vegetables and quickly retreated inside.

She smiled as she thought about it.